While the economic downturn has resulted in fewer companies making philanthropic contributions to the arts, those companies that have continued their support actually gave a slightly greater share of their charitable dollars, a new survey from the Business Committee for the Arts finds.
Thanks to Margie Salvante, Executive Director of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, for forwarding this story and the key message, found at the end of the third paragraph:
"The survey also found that 63 percent of respondents would boost their giving to the arts if the contributions had a direct impact on their bottom line, while 74 percent said that arts giving could provide networking opportunities and contribute to the development of new business."
One of my predictions for 2010 was that corporate foundation leaders would need to more closely tie philanthropic investments with corporate strategic goals. Additionally, as I've written about in my book, here, and elsewhere (and others have written as well), corporate giving has changed from a decade ago and looks more like marketing-driven corporate sponsorship. Since the economic turbulence kicked in, ROI is most important.
If you're peddling Gold-Silver-Bronze or other equally generic sponsorship offerings, you're missing numerous opportunities to engage your corporate partners and to grow your organization. To read more, I invite you to check out a recent article I wrote: The Gold-Silver-Bronze Package is Out. Find Out What's In. Please feel free to share it with nonprofit and corporate leaders.
Comments